What better way to celebrate the season than with gratitude? Gratitude, which is a noun, has its origin in the Latin, “gratus” meaning grateful. As defined by Merriam- Webster’s Dictionary, gratitude is the state of being grateful; thankful, appreciative; being more at grace and pleasing.

Living a life of gratitude benefits us in many ways. For it is with gratitude that we are better supported emotionally and physically in our life, thus allowing for an overall sense of peace and calm. Gratitude promotes a state of abundance and the feeling of satisfaction. In fact, gratitude is a wonderful way to sweeten your holidays naturally, without the added sugar, taking away the need for that second helping of dessert. With a sense of gratitude, we readily allow more abundance to enter our lives. This is part of the Universal plan, for when we are appreciative and thankful we easily receive more goodness into our lives.

At this special time, I would like to share my gratitude with all of you. To my friends, associates, coaches and mentors…I want to thank you for making a difference in my life. I am grateful to all of my clients and workshop participants who I have had the privilege of working with. I, too, have learned much from our coaching relationship. And to my networking groups, I am grateful for the many new connections that I have made and look forward to strengthening these relationships in the future. I really appreciate every one of you.

This month, follow your heart with these gratitude inspired ideas:

• Acknowledge and appreciate those special people in your life with a positive verbal comment, a card, a gift or a hug.
• Make a list of all the things that you are grateful for in your life and do include yourself.
• Reach out to people who you know are alone and that would welcome a holiday connection.
• Write a short gratitude saying or prayer that you can recite to yourself. And if you’re feeling adventurous, you might want to share it with your family and friends at a holiday get-together.

And now I would like to leave you with a few of my favorite gratitude verses…

“If the only prayer you ever say your whole life is thank you that would suffice.”
~ Eckart Toll

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~ Melody Beattie

“For gratitude, a magical magnet…a natural expression of a loving heart, the power of gratitude recharges our souls, in giving thanks we help heal the world, and increase our abundance of blessings unknown.”
~ Eileen Bodoh and Katherine Schere

Wishing you happy holidays, an abundance of blessings and a full heart!

How many of you focus on your liabilities instead of your assets? Think about this for a moment and consider how this thinking affects your life. As a coach, I am trained to coach to people’s strengths or assets rather than their weaknesses or liabilities. With that said, I am reminded of one of my favorite truths…“what you focus on grows”. And it’s this very concept that can easily apply to our finances, which is the subject of this article.

The idea is that if you want your money to grow, then you need to bring your awareness to that by focusing on your assets and building on them. Think about your assets and engage them as you practice ways to expand them. It’s also important to look at your liabilities and see how they can be eliminated or minimized. However, at the same time it is important to let go of your need to stay focused on your debt. Unfortunately, most people think about their credit card debt and the many bills they have to pay each month – but why be preoccupied with these thoughts? Doing so will only keep you stuck in a place of lack and negativity. And coming from that negative place will make it difficult to grow your money.

Additionally, when our emotions are involved, we don’t always make sound decisions about money. This is compounded by the fact that we live in a society that is primarily focused on consumerism, which persuades us to spend money. This message plays on our emotions by teaching us to spend in order to feel good. And since we all want to feel good, we listen. But in the end, this affects our money and our assets since we wind up spending rather than growing our money. The key, however, is to remember that we always have a choice in the matter.

Now let’s get back to assets. We all love assets. Assets feel good, secure, powerful and abundant – and they can multiply! When you invest your money properly you build up your assets. This leads me to the next question: How many of you actually do invest your money? Some of you may feel that investing is complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, for the most part I really believe that the apprehension we feel around this topic relates to our fear of the unknown. But investing doesn’t have to be scary or necessarily difficult as long as you educate yourself and explore your options. And in terms of your investment options, I will leave that to the financial experts.

To sum it up…keep the focus on your assets and remember to think rather than feel when it comes to money. By using a logical mind more than emotions when dealing with material possessions and money, you will be better equipped and more in control of your finances. Hence, you will manage your money rather than letting it manage you…now that’s empowerment.

Think about the following questions:

1. What can you do this week to grow your money?
2. How much money are you willing to invest this week?
3. How can you decrease just one liability?

Ask yourself, which column do you want to grow? And just like the game monopoly, remember to have fun!

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to have a conversation with Stephen Shapiro, TV and radio show host, speaker and writer. He is the author of GOAL FREE LIVING, which is a very refreshing approach to goal achievement. I enjoyed reading his book and although the subject matter is anything but new, I still found it to be interesting and enlightening. So besides having a catchy title, being a coach myself made this particular topic even more provocative and compelling. After all, so much of the work that I do with people usually focuses around their goals and how they can achieve them. So, how can we obtain what we desire in a manner that supports us? How can we proceed to achieve our goals and still be happy in the process?

The following concepts are a basic overview of our conversation, which are combined with my own thoughts on the subject:

Looking at first things first; do you even truly know what your goals are? We think we know, but is it really our goal or someone else’s? Because the reality is that many people are not really following their true desires, but rather what they think is expected of them. The other thing to keep in mind is how can you know for sure that you really want a particular goal anyway, when you have never experienced it? Sounds like a conundrum? Well the good news is that there’s lots of hope here, but it has to do with your approach.

Going after your goals and achieving success really comes down to creating success your way by using your own definition, and crafting it as you go along in your journey. Your unique circumstances and personality will define your personal success story. To proceed you can start with an overall plan for your goals, but this is really only part of the picture. What’s really important to consider is how you view your goals and the spirit in which you pursue them. After all, getting too caught up in the end results can produce unhappiness and stress.

The remedy for this challenge lies in the proper balance between keeping your eye on the goal, while also being open to the unexpected opportunities that might come your way. This gives you the chance to enjoy the process of goal achievement, rather than being overly consumed by the chase. For in fact, it’s those unexpected opportunities that can be most fruitful. Rather than holding on too tightly to future outcomes that can be somewhat unpredictable, you can allow yourself to enjoy the circumstances that present themselves today. By allowing for uncertainty, you have the chance to let your goals evolve and change over time as you come to experience them, and you will in turn learn more about yourself in the process. By loosening up your approach and having a more relaxed attitude, the goals will be easier to achieve because you’ll be coming from a more positive place. With this positive feeling, based on the law of attraction, you will come to attract better outcomes. The by-product of this mindset is greater freedom, ease and harmony in your life, which ultimately equates to success.

So, thanks to Stephen, we can adopt a more user- friendly style that will create less stress in our lives and more happiness for us today….and tomorrow. Now doesn’t that sound like a great idea?